OUR STORY

We met at a Halloween party in college...

Rachel was dressed as a bat and Chris was dressed as a nerd. The next week, Chris saw Rachel in the hall at the main building on RMCAD's (Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design) campus, and asked her "Rachel, right?" She paused for a few seconds and responded with "...Michael?" She had forgotten his name, but recognized him. Chris didn't mind, and spent his time between classes looking for Rachel to run into her and talk with her. Before he knew it, they were hiking and watching movies into the night. Rachel recalls soon after they met she went to Chris' apartment for a date, he made Fettuccini Alfredo for dinner and got them Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. From then on the two were inseparable.

Two cats, two dogs and too many ice cream cones later, we're so happy we're getting married and can't wait to spend our lives together.

BEST FRIENDS

Together for seven years and counting, traveling the US and abroad, house-flipping, hiking and camping the Rockies, hitting the beach, paddle boarding, road trips, throwing pottery, sipping coffee at the local cafes, eating ice cream at Sweet Cow, and spending time with friends, family, and pets are some of our favorite things to do together. Here's a little glimpse inside our relationship...

HE PROPOSED

Chris' Proposal Story

Rachel had my heart since we first started hanging out and after six years it was time for me to let her know how much she meant to me. I had the ring and I had her father's permission. All that was left for me to do was figure out how I was going to do it.

Something told me Rachel thought I was up to something, even though I knew she didn't know about the engagement ring I had hiding in our closet. In an effort to throw her off, or at least keep up the element of surprise, I took her on a series of scenic trips that would have seemed like great spots for a proposal. After traveling to Aspen, the Great Sand Dunes, and Pagosa Springs, I would ask her in Telluride, CO. Not only would it be a beautiful place to share our proposal together, but Telluride symbolized our story in a lot of ways. Over the last six years we'd gone caving, climbed mountains, traveled to exotic places, swam with bats, flipped a house and so much more. It only seemed right for our proposal trip to carry on our spirit of adventure.

Well, it turned out one of the biggest snowstorms of the season would blanket Colorado in heavy snow the weekend of our Telluride trip. Our drive quickly turned from a routine 6-hour drive into an 11-hour crawl on icy roads and snowy mountain passes with visibility so low our only hope was to not loose sight of the bright taillights in front of us. It was easy for me to put up with the stress of the drive, knowing I would get to ask my best friend to spend the rest of her life with me in less than 24 hours, but there were a few times she asked me if we should turn back. I did my best to reassure her that it would be worth the trek. Eventually we made it to our hotel late and settled in for the night.

On the second day of our snowy trip, we boarded the gondola at Telluride's Mountain Village to ride into town. This was the moment I had been waiting for. Rachel thought we were going into town to shop, while I was trying to hide my excitement for what was about to happen. After frantically scraping the frost off the inside of the gondola's window with my credit card to reveal the town buried in snow backed by towering white peaks, we started to move slowly down the mountain. I knew I had a fairly small window to take advantage of the best view and was ready to spring into action. There was only one small problem, Rachel was afraid of the drop-off and had turned away from the view as we dropped over the edge. She asked if it was safe to look and I said yes. When she turned around I was down on one knee. She looked so beautiful and before she could react I told her that she was the only one I wanted to adventure with for the rest of my life. Then I asked her to be my wife. Though tears of excitement...